ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said at the time her comments were an indication of her intention to enter active politics. "If she wants to join the DA or form a political party, she will soon find out that it is no Sunday picnic," he added.

Ramphele cut her teeth as an apartheid activist while studying medicine at the University of Natal in the 1970s. She became increasingly involved in student politics and was one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement, alongside Steve Biko. She was specifically involved in organising and working with community development programmes through the movement.

In 1975, she founded the Zanempilo Community Health Centre in Zinyoka, in the Eastern Cape – one of the first primary health care initiatives outside the public sector in South Africa.

Due to her political activities, she was banished to the town of Tzaneen from 1977 to 1984 by the apartheid government. – Additional reporting by Sapa